What Is A Republican and What Is A Libertarian?

Most Americans are conditioned to think in the traditional left/right paradigm that goes back to the early French Republic. This is familiar: left is liberal, right is conservative.

But liberal and conservative are nebulous terms at best. Literally, conservatives are those who wish to conserve, while liberals are those who wish to change. But this definition can never describe static philosophies or solid principles, but rather creates a moving target based on the politics of the day.

A conservative in England in 1215 would have sided with King John at Runnymede and a liberal would have sided against him. A conservative in Russia in 1985 would have supported the existing Soviet State, while a liberal would have supported Gorbachev and Perestroika.

In the late 1700s, a liberal philosophy we now call “Classical Liberalism” evolved in Europe and America that opposed the right of kings theory (the conservatism of the day) and supporting expanded freedom, economic liberty and freedom of religion. This “classical liberalism” is the grandfather of both American Conservatives and Liberals. But as time has passed, American Liberals have moved leftward beyond this base position and conservatives – as their name implies – have more or less stayed there.

In Europe, the term Liberal still means Classical Liberal . Hence, the German Free Democratic Party, known as the “Liberals” supports a completely open free-market platform that Americans would generally call conservative. European parties of the left use terms like Socialist or Labor. These names are better descriptors of their actual positions, but in America, the terms have bad connotations that Americans of the left wish to avoid, preferring the terms liberal or progressive to describe themselves.

Only Two Sides?

But this single-line right/left paradigm is only a partial explanation of political philosophies and ignores the phenomenon by which the extremes of either side – communism and fascism – actually are more similar to each other than to the moderate positions between them.

A more detailed view could be displayed on a Cartesian Plane, with the added axis of authority/freedom. This too has its limits, as will be discussed, but comes closer to graphically depicting the competing political philosophies:

Graph of Political Philosophies

To explain the graph, we have the traditional left/right line of liberal vs. conservative, with all the assumptions Americans generally assume of both. Added to this graph, however, we have put in a new axis of authority and liberty. This is, roughly speaking, how much government power vs. individual autonomy a political philosophy assumes.

The leftist authoritarians – Communists or Marxists – harness the power of the state in a transformative manner. State power is used ruthlessly to change the nation – forced collectivization of farms, expropriation of property, and forced equality.

The rightist authoritarians – Fascists and National Socialists (Nazis) – likewise harness the full power of the state but for generally preservative ends. While still remaking the country, they generally do so in order to revert to a supposed golden age. In Italian Fascism, this manifested itself in a shabby recreation of the Roman Empire, while in Nazi Germany, this philosophy was used to go back to a supposed pure, Aryan past.

On the bottom side of the scale are those who want little or no government at all. On the liberal side, this is the anarchist movements of the 1880s or 1960s. On the conservative side, this is pure Laissez-faire capitalism theory that envisions a market free of all controls with little concern for how unfettered capitalism negatively affects society or individuals.

The majority of people – in America and elsewhere – fall in the middle of these extremes, with Republicans to the right center and Democrats to the left center. The point where these two circles intersect is where moderates lie. (These circles are representative of positions, not absolute numbers of individuals).

Libertarians fall to the bottom right on this graph, although they aspire to the bottom center. This is because even the traditional left/right paradigm is highly complex. But the unique set of beliefs that has shaped American conservatism and liberalism means that Libertarians are closer aligned to the former, although we shall see there are strong differences between conservatives and Libertarians on social issues.

Zooming in on the picture and taking authority/liberty out of the equation, we can now see what separates Republicans and Libertarians by adding a new graph for social issues. For Republicans and Democrats, it is taken as gospel that issues such as gay marriage, drug legalization and gun control fall neatly on the liberal/conservative dividing line just as welfare and business deregulation. But Libertarians differ from the major parties in arguing that these are separate matters entirely.

Libertarians generally believe that government role in social matters is non-existent, whereas conservatives, for moral reasons, often insist on a stronger role.

Libertarians, therefore, often believe in the right to bear arms, but also in the legalization of marijuana. They believe in school choice, but not prayer in school. Generally, they believe in individual liberty (hence their name) in matters of personal conscience. This belief often – but not always – coincides with Republican values.

Although many Libertarians may themselves be socially conservative and churchgoing, the key point here (reflected in the chart) is that they believe that there is not a government role in being socially conservative.

This split becomes profound and divisive between the two camps when social issues are on the forefront of the burner politically. However, when economic issues take center stage – the right side of this graph – then the two sides have strong political commonality, provided the GOP stays to the right of the line and doesn’t stray – as President Bush and Congress did in 2006 – to the left of it.